"It's been three days without head or tail of Naraku," Miroku said with a weary sigh. "This is an irritating and fruitless journey."

"Head nor tail? Miroku, I can feel that Naraku is nearby. I trust this feeling because he made me. We don't need much more to run off of." Kiki snapped. She was tired of being drilled on how idiotic traveling on a feeling is. She had an ache that Naraku was not very far off, and they came nearer to it every day. "And despite all of your complaining, this is much more productive than sitting at the slayer's village day after day."

Sango shot the two an irritated look over the campfire, her soft face harsh in the flickering shadows of the night. "This bickering gets you nowhere, Miroku. Kiki is right. This is better than just sitting around the village."

"As long as Kiki has the jewel, Naraku will show his dirty face," Inuyasha voiced cockily from above them. He was perched comfortably on a tree branch. "The closer we get to him, the more he'll desire the jewel. It's simple." Suddenly they heard movement in the tree and he shifted his position. Even Kiki could guess what was going on.

"Meanwhile," he continued, perching himself to jump out of the tree. "There are other filthy vermin to deal with!"

Kiki lazily twisted a piece of the fire out of place and shaped it easily into a ball of flame. As if without interest, she chucked it behind her and was rewarded with a painful shriek of death. Unfazed, she looked up at the now sulking half breed. "Calm down, Inuyasha. We'll catch him. Well, who's on first watch?" she turned her gaze to the other two. "If I'm not mistaken…"

"Myself, then Sango, then you, then Inuyasha." Miroku sighed and she bore her eyes into his. Smiling innocently, she stood to stretch.

"As I thought. Wake me when it's my turn."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

"His scent?" Sango inquired with obvious curiosity as they picked their way through the thickening woods. She leaned forward as if to hear better, unjustly pleasing Miroku, who was walking behind her. "If you had his scent you could track him?"

It had been a fairly uneventful night, all things considered. A weak demon on Sango's shift, but nothing more. Everyone had slept peacefully, and the pace was quick and refreshing. Soft rays of morning sunlight glittered through the leaves above them, although most of the path ahead was shadowed by trees.

"I can vaguely remember it." Inuyasha explained impatiently, slightly annoyed that a complaint he had voiced had brought on conversation. "But if I could remember it than we would have found Naraku ages ago." Sango still looked utterly puzzled and lost, not following.

"Being part Inu Youkai, Inuyasha has a very strong sense of smell. He can track nearly anything by their unique and personal scent. I'm under the understanding that demons are especially easy to follow." Kiki said, taking it upon herself to explain the simple situation.

Sango's face brightened at the thought. "How useful!" she exclaimed, no doubt imagining how easy it would have been to slay certain demons with such a skill, back in the slayer's village.

"I suppose." Kiki admitted, shooting Inuyasha a death glare that he frankly ignored. "But we don't need Naraku's scent because I can feel that he is close."

Miroku fought the urge to roll his eyes while Sango simply looked amused. Inuyasha said and did nothing to betray his standings on the subject, utterly refusing to be caught in the middle of Kiki and Miroku's argument.

Suddenly, a bitter wind rushed at the trees and the group hunched subconsciously against it. As if entertained, Kiki waved her hand in front of her and the wind was gone, disappearing as quickly as it had come. She glanced at the sky and the trees around her, only slightly unsettled by the serenity of her surroundings. Why was it so quiet?

As if chilled, Kiki froze in place and began shivering. Sango stopped as to not hit her, causing Miroku to stop as well, but Inuyasha led on, unaware of the sudden traffic jam. Her eyes flashed red and she turned her head to the sky, ebony locks drifting behind her in a soft wind. The bitter breeze had begun again but she glared at the sky and it stopped.

"Here. Something amiss." She murmured, barely audible. Inuyasha heard this and turned around, slightly surprised that everyone had stopped. Miroku and Sango stood very still, as if any movement might scare away this new lead Kiki had stumble onto. Her eyes flashed blue, which Inuyasha saw, and she turned to her left. "A cave. A large cave. But... No... It's a room that is big. Lit by the unknown." She began to walk into the brush, apparently drawn to something ahead off her. The group followed warily with Inuyasha in front until she stopped and kneeled down on the hard earth.

"It's here." She said, her voice dull. Inuyasha was immediately alarmed and started reached out for her, but she dug her nails into the earth and vanished.

Just like that, she was gone. Her image didn't flicker, or waver, but merely vanished from existence altogether. Not a even a warning had been made to them, and there had been no way to stop it. At first the others were shocked, but consciousness soon grasped at their minds.

"Kiki!" Inuyasha roared in obvious despair, his eyes wide with fright. His body was almost a blur as he suddenly appeared where she had last been, turning wildly in every direction. "NO!" He looked frantically at the ground and saw there were no markings from her fingernails digging into the ground, although he had clearly seen the dirt bunch up. The bitter breeze started up again and then swiftly stopped. Inuyasha stared harshly at the ground, confused beyond reason. There was no trace that Kiki had been there at all; not even a lingering scent.

She was gone.

All he could think of was "This can not be happening" as he pummeled randomly into the woods on a frantic search for her. He didn't hear Sango's panicked shouts for him to stop or Miroku's loud but understanding calls for him to come back. He didn't here anything but his own frantic thoughts, and he could barely see anything besides a blur of woods. Kiki's face was fresh in his mind.

"Inuyasha, where are you going?" Sango tried again after he was long gone. She slid to the ground in a worn out heap, confused and upset. "Miroku, what are we going to do?"

Miroku squatted next to her and put a hand on her back. He knew very well that without Kiki to calm and ease his nerves, Inuyasha would progressively get angrier and angrier until he snapped completely. This situation needed gentle handling. "We have to go after him." He said simply.

Sango nodded but seemed to be struggling with something, which Miroku mistook easily for sorrow. He stood up and sighed at the path of destruction Inuyasha was leaving behind him. It wouldn't be easy to calm him down. "SHE'S GONE!" Sango then wailed hysterically, causing him to jump. "We'll NEVER find her!"

"Sango, what…?" Miroku began, turning to her, his brow ruffled in confusion. She had discarded her boomerang bone and fallen into the dirt. He stretched his senses suspiciously and drew back at his discovery. In his haste to follow Inuyasha he hadn't noticed the uneasiness about the area, and the demonic feeling of death and despair. As he looked around once more, an unnatural fog began to drift and settle around them. Sango wouldn't get this upset over much of anything, after all that training in the slayer's village. And she hadn't wept much for her brother's death, so Kiki's disappearance was hardly a thing that promised breakdowns. There was only one logical explanation. "A spell."

Miroku squatted next to Sango again. "Sango, we have to get out of here." He urgently told her. He was surprised when she sat up and flung her shaking body against his chest and into his arms, curling against him.

"M-miroku…" she stuttered like a pleading child. Gently, he settled his arms around her and frowned, thinking about how Kiki had lead them into this area, and then his eyes widened as he further realized what was going on. It was all a trap. Kiki had led them on a planted feeling into a trap she hadn't known of. Without saying anything to Sango, Miroku dropped his staff slipped his arms under her. He then picked her up, clutching her body against him. "I have to get out of here." He thought, leaving their weapons behind.

He began running as Sango tried to pull herself together. He followed Inuyasha's path: the cleared bushes and trees pushed far back in his utter rage. Miroku's eyes skimmed the ground to make sure he didn't trip, paying no mind to Sango when she shuffled herself a bit.

The two had barely made it out of the fog when Sango stopped shaking completely, and Miroku felt a sharp, piercing feeling in his shoulder, as if he had been stabbed. He stumbled onto his knees and gave the woman in his arms a wide-eyed expression. She looked up at him with glazed over eyes and withdrew glowing claws from his shoulder, slowly smiling as he winced in pain.

"S-sango…" he stammered, his vision blurring slightly. "What…?"

"Get your filthy hands off me, you pervert." Sango hissed as she rolled expertly out of his arms.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

"I have to find her." You never will. "She's not dead!" You don't know that. "She's NOT DEAD!" Keep telling yourself that…

Inuyasha stopped his stampeding for a moment, breathing heavily and struggling with his thoughts. It seemed a part of him had developed doubts about Kiki and the chance that she might be alive. His eyes darted everywhere, like he was some kind of crazed animal. His hands were clenching and unclenching rapidly, and his feet were twitching to move. "Shut up," he growled, clamping his hands over his ears. I'm not real. "I said SHUT UP!" Kiki is dead! Lalalalalalala! "SHUT U-" Inuyasha's nose twitched and he cut himself off, his eyes locking onto something on his right. He could faintly pick up a familiar scent, and a haunting word slipping through his lips.

"Kiki."

He burst forward, smashing through overgrown bushes and weeds. Trees, trees, and more trees. As he kept on forward a cave entrance became dimly visible ahead, and his mind flashed to an image of Kiki's smiling face. He pushed on faster, and all he could think about was her alluring scent, drifting out of the cave and right to him. Some of her last words echoed in his mind. "A cave. A large cave."

As he approached it, another scent teased at his mind, somehow getting him to stop. To his surprise it was blood. Fresh blood had been spilt far back, the way he had come. That was where he had left Miroku and Sango, in a whirlwind of fury and fear. He turned and looked at the path he had made, somehow uneasy at this turn of events.

"Shit." He mumbled. You better go save them. He blinked slowly at the thought. "Kiki." Oh, alright, save her. "Shit." Another slow blink. Shit is right. Who are you going to save?

He was torn. Miroku and Sango could deal with themselves, but Kiki wasn't exactly a pushover. She was the girl he cared about, yes, but she wasn't human and could take care of herself. Miroku and Sango were also the closest things to friends he had ever had. He sniffed again, his stomach churning as he identified the blood as Miroku's.

Kiki wasn't in any immediate danger. It wasn't as if he could smell her blood everywhere or something. It seemed almost as if she was protected, for the moment. Miroku and Sango were apparently dealing with something hard to handle, or Miroku wouldn't have gotten hurt. He needed to make a decision. Help his friends or save his woman?

This was bad.

Very bad.

"Shit." Inuyasha said once more.